❤ Innocent Rebel ❤

Chapter 45

●●●● I'm not as strong as everyone thinks I am ●●●●

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Mia
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The days are long but the nights are almost unbearable. They say that time heals everything. It's been two months and the pain hasn't left me yet.
Mawmaw insisted that I get out. Go do something, anything, just as long as I got out of bed. I left, not telling anyone where I was going, basically because I had no clue where I was going. I drive my new car that Lex had brought me around town. I stop by the apartment building that Lex had once lived in. The apartment had been sold, from what the front man says, Lex himself had put it up for sale after the break in.

"Ma'am," says a man that is rushing up to me. "I don't know if you remember me or not but I was the one that.... Well, I was the one who was so rude to you so long ago."

My eyes widen and I realize that if he had not said who he was I wouldn't have recognized him.

"Yes. I remember you," I say.

He nods. "Well, ma'am. I just wanted to you how sorry I am. About Mr. D'Amore. He was a very good man."

A knit forms in my throat. My hands start to shake.

"Yes, he was. One of the best. And thank you," I can barely speak. 

Before he can say anything else, I run back out of the lobby. I sit in my car, screaming in anger. Its not fair! And my heart can stand it.

An hour later, I find myself parked outside the tattoo shop. The only other place I could seem to think of going. None of us have been to work since Lex's funeral. I haven't been here since longer than that. But when I see a for sale sign in the window, I have no clue when it was put there.
I reach for my phone and call John.
No answer.
I call Chris and Jess.
No answer.
Like a mad person I race back home.
I rush inside.
No one is around.
Oscar sits on the sofa in the livingroom. He quickly jumps up when he sees me.

"What?" he asks in a panic. "What is it?"

"Where is John?" I ask.

"In his office, where he's been most of the time.....wait, what happened?"

I leave Oscar wondering and fly down the hall. I don't bother knocking. John has kept himself locked in his room or office, since Lex's funeral. No has hardly seen him. Seems that this is the way he wants it. But I have no care for what he wants just now. I burst into his office. 
He sits behind his desk. Another man, I have never seen before, sits in a chair across from his desk. They both stand as I approach the desk.

"Mia, now isn't the best time," John says.

I have to say, John looks better than I thought he would.

"I need to talk to you," I say impatiently.

"I'm tending to business now. I will speak with you when I'm done here."

I look over at the man who is taking so much of John's time. He is a older gentleman, dressed in a nice clean suit. A business man.

"Hello, Miss Martinez. My name is Mr. Bennett. It's nice to finally meet you," he reaches out his hand and I give it a shake.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" I ask rudely.

John sighs. "He is my personal lawyer, Mia."

I look back over to John. "Are you selling the shop?"

He takes a deep breath. "Yes."

I stare at him. "How could you? Lex worked so hard there. It's all we have left of him! And your selling it?!"

John raises his hand, in a attempt to calm me. "Now, Mia. Right now isn't the time to discussing this... "

"Discuss what?! You've already made your decision! You're just going to get ride of everything that he was! Like he was never even here in the first place. We'll have nothing left of him! It'll be like he was never alive! You don't even have any pictures of him in this fucking house! None of him when he was a baby or growing up! Did you even love him at all?!"

John slams his hand down on his desk. "Of course, I love him!"

I'm too upset to say anything else. I run out of his office and up to Lex's old bedroom, my new room. I slam the door shut.  I hit the wall, then slid to the floor. It wasn't right! Everything about Lex is going to be gone. I'm furious at John. I know he's a good man. Hell, he hasn't even said that we need to find somewhere else to live. He has let us stay, he has clothed me and feed me, let Jess and Mawmaw stay here with me, but why would he just sell Lex's hard work away?
I wonder what John has done with all of Lex's art work from the shop? The picture of his mother? Would he have sold those too? I just can not stand this!
I pull myself up off of the floor and into the bed. Sleep is more of an escape than  anything else. It's the only place where I can be with him. Even if it's only a dream. But even a dream has to come to an end eventually. Still, it's the only place we can be together.

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